Truth (I'm a Disaster)
by some kind of harmony
Summary: The Social Network. Mark/Eduardo. It's just another drunk night at Kirkland, only it's also the night everything is about to go terribly, horribly wrong.


[**Disclaimer:** These characters belong to...Aaron Sorkin? Mostly, I'd like to point out that while The Social Network is based on real people, I honestly know nothing about their lives beyond their characterization in the movie/depictions in other fanfics. This fic is entirely based on those fictional characters, etc. etc. Basically: this isn't RPF.

**A/N:** This little ficlet was prompted by an anonymous person on Tumblr (where I go by "no-literally") as part of a three-sentence fic meme I was doing. Obviously this didn't turn out to be three sentences long. It also turned out to be my first TSN fic. So thanks to the anonymous prompter, whoever you are! I hope you like it.]

**Truth (I'm a Disaster)**

It's just another drunk night at Kirkland, only it's also the night everything is about to go terribly, horribly wrong.

Mark's got a handle on "Truth or Dare" (it's Dustin's favorite drinking game, even if basically makes them into twelve year old girls at a slumber party). It's just like code, it's just a boolean. You've only got two options, you've got "true" or "false" set to "truth" or "dare," and luckily for him Mark has no sense of shame so the single answer he should choose in this game is really rather obvious.

Only that's the problem, that's why everything is about to go awry. Because Eduardo's just asked Mark teasingly why he never picks "truth," and Mark just shrugs but he's smiling a little bit, too, which is dangerous.

Everything with Eduardo is dangerous lately.

Mark doesn't make friends easily. It's pretty obvious, even to him, that one day he'll drive Eduardo away. One day he'll do something, something really stupid, and Eduardo won't be able to look at him again. He's pretty sure of it.

But there's one thing Mark can do to make Eduardo stop looking at him right now, and he's also pretty sure that's what's about to happen.

Because Chris just asked Mark "truth or dare?" (Chris is the one you have to watch out for, it's Dustin's favorite game but they all love it because Chris is so good at coming up with the perfect humiliating question or task) and Mark wasn't looking at Chris, Eduardo had just tugged at Mark's elbow and when Mark turned to look Eduardo just had this twinkle in his eye and apparently nothing whatsoever to actually say but Mark's brain kind of fuzzed over and he found himself staring at Eduardo, not looking away, and watching Eduardo's eyes go wide, and then found himself saying "truth."

Which was the exact moment, naturally, that Mark's brain un-fuzzed, Dustin started cackling, Chris grinned like the fucking Cheshire Cat, and Eduardo looked at Mark like he was kind of weirdly proud or something. Mark doesn't even know. "Dare!" he shouts, but he knows it's too late. "I said dare! I meant dare!"

"No you didn't," Dustin sing-songs.

Mark slumps further into the couch. He clutches his beer with both hands.

Chris has a calculating look on his face, glancing back and forth between Mark and Eduardo, and whatever question he asks Mark will just lie, he has to lie, it's obvious Chris is going to ask about Eduardo and his_ feelings _toward Wardo or whatever and Mark can't do this, he can't let this be the moment that he says that thing he knows will turn Eduardo away.

You know what? It's just a game, Mark can lie, whatever. He's shifting in his seat now, a bit. He's ducking his head to stare at his beer so he doesn't have to see the utter delight on the faces of everyone around him. He's filled with this overwhelming sense of dread, he has to lie, because he can't handle losing Eduardo. Not now. Not yet.

"Mark," Chris says, clearly ready to ask his question, the question that will ruin everything unless Mark lies. Which is when Mark (who's determinedly not looking at anyone) hears Dustin's voice instead.

"If you had to live without Red Vines or Eduardo," Dustin says. "Which would you choose?"

They go through the predictable squabbling of "Dustin, it's not your turn!" "But Mark_ never_ says truth!" "That doesn't magically make it your turn." "Mark, answer the question!" Eduardo stays suspiciously silent, and Mark wonders what kind of expression he's making but Mark's certainly not about to look now.

Finally Chris and Dustin must come to some sort of agreement, and God only knows what it entails, because eventually Chris tells Mark to answer the question.

And Mark? Mark can do this. "Wardo," he says. It's not revealing anything shocking. Red Vines aren't even that important, Mark likes them but whatever, they also sell Twizzlers (which aren't as good but they're still basically the same thing).

"Beer or Wardo?" Dustin asks.

And this is weird, or whatever, but it's also easy. It's just booleans. It's not some kind of big confession. It's not even like last time when Chris dared Eduardo to kiss Mark and it was completely amazing but then afterwards Eduardo couldn't even look him in the eye, which is when Mark understood that he couldn't ever tell Eduardo the truth. This is just two options. Mark picks at his beer label as he answers.

"Wardo," he says. He shrugs.

Chris snorts, but whatever.

"Star Wars or Wardo?"

Mark doesn't even like Star Wars, anyway.

"Us or Wardo?"

"You two are the ones who got me into this, so _Wardo,_" Mark says, and Dustin giggles.

"Code or Wardo?"

"Code," Mark says, because he's answering honestly. When shit like last week happens and everything gets confusing and headache-y, code is the only thing that makes sense. He breathes code, okay, it might be the only thing he's actually good at sometimes, and it's so not even a fucking choice.

"I think we're done here," Dustin says. Chris laughs, and Mark tries not to cringe at what that might mean. "Yeah," Chris says. "Nice work."

"Soooo….we're just going to leave you two alone now," Dustin says, and Mark finally, finally glances up again.

"What?" he says.

Dustin nods emphatically. "You don't even want us here, anyway. You said so."

"You said I had to pick one of two options!"

"And you _did_."

"Yeah...that was the game." It's not ridiculous. Is isn't, right? It was just one of two things. That's how booleans work!

But it's too late to ask if it's ridiculous (Mark's still pretty sure it isn't) because now his two suitemates have left the room and Mark hates them, he just absolutely hates them, because now it's him and Eduardo and Mark can't even look at his best friend, instead he's looking at the bottle of beer that's now totally empty and label-less, Mark's picked all the label off, and he feels stupidly exposed and this is it, this is what will destroy them.

"What…" Mark says. He isn't even sure how he wants to finish that sentence, but he knows it's the right one anyway because Eduardo chuckles and slides further down the sofa so his head is resting on Mark's shoulder.

"I was just thinking that," Eduardo says. And maybe Mark hasn't fucked everything up? This still feels normal.

Eduardo turns his face inward, towards Mark's neck. "Did you mean it?" Eduardo says and it's like Eduardo's breathing the words into his skin. "I…I come second to code?"

Mark can't nod or shrug like he normally would because Eduardo's on his shoulder and nodding might jostle him and cause him to sit up or something. Mark won't risk that. "Yeah," he says. It comes out close to a whisper, which is weird. He's still not looking at Eduardo's face, he can't, but now he can't because it's physically impossible, so that's good, too.

Eduardo presses a kiss into Mark's neck. Mark tries not to jump. It would ruin the whole "not jostling Wardo" plan, for one thing. But it would also be embarrassing, and frankly this isn't going like Mark imagined it would go at all (Mark imagined it would go _badly_), and he doesn't want to ruin anything or scare Eduardo off. "I come second to code," Eduardo says, like it's some kind of crazy revelation. Is it? "You…" he says.

"Yeah?" Mark says, and now he's apparently done something but he doesn't know what, only he wants to know so badly so he can do this every time, so that every time Eduardo can pull himself off Mark's shoulder and grab his face like Mark's about to get up and go somewhere else (unlikely), so that every time Eduardo can kiss Mark like it's the only thing he wants to do.

Eduardo pulls away after a minute. He's breathing heavily but that's okay because Mark is, too. He looks Eduardo in the eye, finally, and Eduardo smiles this huge open smile, and maybe the truth hasn't broken anything after all.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed. There's one more TSN one-shot I have written and still need to post on , so expect more of this fandom from me soon! As always, I adore feedback-both the good and the bad!


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